For the flute, François Devienne was to the French school and Mozart’s age what Quantz was to the German school and the days of Frederick the Great. Paradoxically, his E minor Concerto, probably the best known of the 14 he wrote and regularly used today as a test piece in competitions, opens with the nervous energy of a CPE Bach flute concerto. That’s before the soloist enters with a graceful classical subject that tells us we have entered a different world. The rondo finale is a tour de force (as Pahud admits in the booklet, ‘it pushes the flautist to the limit’), played with a joyful verve that far outstrips the prosaic András Adorján (Tudor) but closely resembles Pahud’s teacher Alain Marion (Denon). Pahud, though, has the advantage of a crisper acoustic and the enlivening support of the Basle Chamber Orchestra. The delightful if slighter works of Luigi Gianella and Gluck (the latter boasting a really lovely Adagio) precede Pleyel’s demanding C major Concerto. Here again Pahud and the quality of the recording score even over such rivals as Patrick Gallois (Naxos), with livelier tempi and Gallic insouciance.

A most attractive disc and thoughtfully presented, too: apart from a jolly double-page photo of the Basle players, the familiar portrait of Devienne (from the studio of Jacques-Louis David) reproduced in the booklet is complemented by a striking photograph of Pahud in front of David’s cartoon Le serment du jeu de paume.